I have dumb questions about swim diapers. I'm trying to decide of I should go reusable or disposable. We are traveling for about three weeks this summer when machine washing won't be available. I should do disposable, right? would they rinse in the sink and dry overnight?

In the fall, babynut will be swimming once a week. How many swim diapers do I need? Do you guys have a few in case they poop or what?

Reusable swim diapers are really thin (it's just like a cover with some webbing inside). We've used them for swimming in the evening, rinsed it out and hung it up in the bathroom overnight, and they're good to go in the morning!

We have three swim dipes (the bummis is our favorite, but we also have a kushies and an applecheeks), and in the summer we're going almost every day. Ezra is of the not-pooping-in-water camp, so we're good just rinsing them out between laundry runs.

The iplay swim diaper does have a bit of absorbancy to it, but not much. I don't think it would hold more than a very small pee. I always put the swim diaper on her right before we get in the pool, so I don't worry about adding anything for absorbancy.

Butternut, if it were me, I'd buy a small pack of disposable swim diapers because I know my kid poops in water. If they don't have poop in, you can reuse disposable swim diapers-- just wring and let it dry out. If one gets poopy, or if it starts to wear out, you can throw it out. A mom friend of mine used the same disposable swim diaper on her son all summer for a once weekly swim class and said that it held up fine.

I haven't used them yet with the Bean (except a couple of times in the much-hated paddling pool), but the reusable swim diapers I had with Baby G would easily dry overnight, faster if in someplace warm. You didn't need an extra diaper either. The first couple she had were Bambino Mio, then we got one from the swim shop that was another brand, I think. Way nicer than Lil' Swimmers, etc. imo.

On another note, does anyone use snappis? And like them? We were using them from the beginning until the past couple weeks. We've just been putting the cover over the prefold and it doesn't really make a difference as far as I've noticed.

I have both used and not used snappis. E was mostly too fat for them. Didn't seem to make a big difference to me. I have friends who didn't use covers when in the house, they just changed the baby when wet, and they loved their snappis.

We're going to Oregon for 3ish weeks and I'm wondering whether or not it's worth it to use some of my limited packing space to pack the cloth diapers. We'll be staying with my in-laws who CD'd and don't mind us using their washer and dryer... We've done it before with E. But I'm feeling like maybe it's not worth the hassle this time?

Yes, we CD without a cover in the house (so much easier to know if she is wet or not), so we do a snappi. I hear good things about the Boingo, and would love to know if anyone else has ever tried them.

The Boingo:

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

We have been using prefolds and have never used snappis. I don't think I really understand their purpose. Also, how do you not use a cover? Doesn't whatever your baby is sitting on (like, your lap) get peed on? These are genuine questions, I only used my first cloth diaper when Scarlett was born and I really don't know what I'm doing!

We don't usually use prefolds, but when we do we use a snappi, because the kind of covers we have, you can not just nest the prefold in place. It is a cheap pull on cover. We use it when we are running low on our fuzzibunz. And usually we use the workhorse prefolds as opposed to the regular ones, because it is easier.

I'm genuinely confused about babies that can't use the snappi because they are too big. Maybe it is because Carlos is small, but it seems like it would work with a giant baby, and they even have a size up from what we are using. Or maybe it is because they are using regular prefolds? The workhorse ones have nice extended tabs. That must be it. I'm just imagining Buddha belly babies (okay, Buddha is not the one with the fat belly, right? I'm also confused about that).

I liked Snappies because I couldn't make it work with just the trifolded prefold in a cover. The poop always ran everywhere and I then couldn't reuse the cover. Sven is a 99th percentile baby for weight and I never have a problem Snappi-ing him up with a regular prefold. Maybe people are using prefolds that are on the small side?

I sometimes use a prefold without cover when we were around the house. I'd usually put down a waterproof lap pad or something to protect furniture (or me). But I could tell instantly when he was wet which was great. We're trying to do EC and I'm thinking of going back to this method.

I liked Snappies because I couldn't make it work with just the trifolded prefold in a cover. The poop always ran everywhere and I then couldn't reuse the cover.

Exactly. Recently, Lydia has been having explosive poops that still get on the cover frequently, but having the snappi means the diaper is holding most of the poop rather than a huge mess of poop going everywhere when I take the cover off, and a smaller chance of poop getting on her clothes. We also sometimes use a pull-on cover, and you have to either snappi or pin (or boingo?) the diaper on because a pull-on cover can't hold a prefold in place like a wrap cover can.

For chubbier babies with smaller prefolds, they do make a large snappi (called the Toddler snappi, I think?).

To get out stains, I dry them by a window in my laundry room (after 10 mins in the dryer- i like soft diapers). in my old house, my front room got lots of light in the morning and that took care of stains (the sun) on dipes and covers even in darkest winter

I love how much wisdom is in this thread! I came in to ask about how to get my sun-dried diaps soft, and found a solution from 18 months ago. The sunning is amazing for taking out stains, but not so soft. I like that I can dry for a bit and then sundry to save energy, get rid of stains and have soft diaps.

I can't imagine CDing without this thread!

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Re: giant babies and snappi sizes: the second size of snappi is a relatively new thing. They didn't have toddler size when E was an infant.

We pretty much never had poosplosions with him. The one time it happened stands out in my mind because it was so unexpected. We have had way more with M and I don't know why... He's wearing literally the same diapers.

And mooooo, yeah-- if you don't have a cover on, you're at risk for whatever the baby's on getting wet. I think most babies don't pee enough in one go to totally soak a prefold though... So they would feel thr diaper starting to get damp/warm and change it.

I used a snappi from the beginning. Now I need to use one because he is so wiggly when changing that there is no way I could get the cover on without the prefold getting flung across the room while I was trying. We also sometimes go cover free in the house (well, I do. It scares my partner) I like going cover free in the morning when he sits in his high chair. It is plastic and I wipe it down anyway so it doesn't matter. It takes so much to diaper this kid now that he resists that putting on the cover sometimes takes 5 min so not using it saves so much time in my day!

We just got some snappis and Scarlett's hanging out on the couch without a cover (on top of another prefold)! She needs to be changed so frequently right now I can see how it could be convenient to not bother with a cover sometimes. All I know for sure right now is that she looks cute!

I've just been reunited with my cloth diaper stash!! So Vi's been back in Bumgenius (4.0 and Freetimes) for a day now, and I'm just about running out and getting to the point where I have to start resizing ALL the fuzzibunz. Yuck! That's the biggest downside of the FB, IMO.

Not really. Diaper covers are fragile enough that I don't want to risk doing anything harsh. Letting them sit in the sun does help, but too much of that can damage covers (or at least, bright California sun does!).

This thread has totally come full circle because I asked the same question on page one!

Anyone else have trouble with leg leaks? We used cloth only sparingly up until about 5 months, because, well honestly, I was so mother forking tired from the horror that was breastfeeding that I couldn't deal with nappies. Anyway, we were doing fine at first, but now are having trouble with leaks from the legs (using Motherease mostly). The covers seem to fit fine, but still I find her pants wet later (sometimes after just 30 minutes or so). I'm using disposables pretty often again because it's just too hard to change her clothes (and clean car seat/pram, etc.) We're coming to America (woot) in a couple of weeks on vacation, so if there's a brand of cover that is super duper, I might try and pick some up to try.

Also, what do y'all put in the bucket/pail with the wet nappies to aid with smell, if anything?